We are back in the UK for a quick visit. The first for several years. What’s struck us the most has been the state of the roads. You are driving along an A road and suddenly there is a warning that the road ahead is closed. Next thing you know there is a barrier across the road and that’s that. OK for the locals but a right pain in the backside for somebody who is not a local. As there are no deviation signsThe state of many of the roads is not good. I was almost seasick yesterday being driven quickly down one by a family member. And, once again, this was an A road not a back alley.
However it was great to walk around the shops and be able to understand every word. Talking to people, reading and watching the news we get the impression that all is not well over the channel. The atmosphere is far from positive.
I am dreading going back for a school reunion in a few weeks time and might well abort the mission altogether if I can’t be sure how many are going to turn up and at the moment there have been almost no confirmations.
Just a tad over the top, don’t you think? Even the USA which would claim that isn’t a true democracy either.
I don’t know enough in detail about the French system but I am pretty sure that it is more of a democracy than either of those 2.
I thought it was because people didn’t want to retire later? That’s certainly what they and their banners generally said from what I saw anyway, a few mentions of 49.3 on the fringes certainly but mainly pensions.
Having followed the whole thing quite closely… I feel tempted to “blame” (if one must blame anybody) those folk who undertook the filibustering… that’s when the rot started, in my view…
Like it or not, it was entirely constitutional and I suspect there would have been riots even if it had passed by vote.
If you want to see a creeping reduction in freedom and accountability, just take a look at the UK where it seems every bill is reducing freedom of speech and the right of protest and reducing parliamentary scrutiny through increasingly giving power to the executive to implement law.
Then take a look at the Cabinet Office scrutinising the social media history of guest speakers and uninviting them if they’ve ever criticised government.
It’s a lot later on in the UK and will not be long until your into your 70’s before you retire.
Leading the way is great and noble, but you have to be able to fund it all and that wasn’t going to happen if they had kept the pension age they had, it had to change.
